11.21
Last time, Sunrise recycled itself for the umpteenth time. This week… EXPLOSIONS!
Smoke fills the room...
We begin with a replay of last week’s cliffhanger featuring L-Elf and Lieselotte where Michael finally confesses his love to his lost amour (well this isn’t going to end well now is it?). The two attempt to flee the palace but are stopped by Q-Vier who challenges L-Elf to a knife fight… or more precisely a “Q-Vier attacks L-Elf with a knife”-fight. Meanwhile, after releasing all the hostages (save for Daddy Tokushima, w ho has Stockholm-syndrome now), Haruto heads off to give L-Elf an escape route, knocking out Q-Vier but ending up with Lieselotte instead as L-Elf goes off to beat up Cain or something.
I bet you're so looking forward to it Q-Vier...
While all this is going on the Dorssians have figured out that the New JIORians are planning to use an old museum piece rocket to flee back to space and start shelling the hanger containing said shuttle. The resulting battle totals the only available runway and our band of not so merry teens appear to be screwed. As Haruto attempts to rescue them, we get the single largest piece of backstory yet about what the hell exactly is going on in Dorssia from Lieselotte… and its what nearly kills this episode.
Cue Gurren no Yumiya
As you well know by now the country of Dorssia has had its government recently overthrown and replaced by a sinister Space Nazi regime led by Space Wizards. What we did not know is that the Space Wizards are actually the Magius, incorporeal alien beings who crash landed here 150 years earlier and are currently manipulating empty or possibly dead shells ranging from Cain, the Dorssian Emperor, and even Pino the Valvrave computer. Like the Holy Spirits (whose creation may have been the result of the Magius’ influence), the Magius eat Runes to survive, however their process is far more parasitic having no other body to go back to. To make matters worse, poor Lieselotte is also one of them, however she rebelled and is being tortured in that weird sauna like machine we saw a few episodes ago.
So yeah… Space Vampires Vs. Space Nazi Zombies. Ah Valvrave Idiocy… its good to have you back.
That's not how you use the patch girl...
Back to L-Elf on a motorcycle, who is being chased by waffle irons in some of the best animation of the episode. With no runway available, the closest alternative is to use the road out Dorssiana, but the problem is the bridge is out. Somebody has to make it drop and that person is good ol’ L-Elf. After taking several bullets and lowering the bridge, Michael prepares to taste sweet death finally only to get saved by Haruto in the end. The rocket takes off but a stray laser blast causes a rupture in one of the boosters making it descend. While Haruto tries to get back on the rocket, Lieselotte uses her Space Zombie Wizard Nazi powers to fix the damage but not before the process sucks what little life she had left. Naturally L-Elf is more than a little bummed about this and finally breaks out into tears. However Lieselotte’s sacrifice was worth it and the JIORians are finally going home. All in all an one hundered percent successful trip despite losing Marie. I mean its not like they actually forgot to pick somebody up ri-
Oh.
Yup Saki’s still stuck on Earth. WAY TO GO GENIUSES! (then again I kinda forgot about her too judging by these more recent recaps)
Sad L-Elf is Sad.
This week’s Valvrave is kind of a double edged sword. On one hand, the Magius stuff ranks up with some of the more cockamamie ideas to come of of the first half of the series and quickly derails the episode with its sheer out and out silliness. On the other, the action this week is very top notch and my attempts to summarize it only glaze over L-Elf’s incredibly well done gun battles. One of the things Valvrave sets out to do is make you ignore the rather half-assed/flat out silly plot with balls to the walls action and this episode pulled it off rather well. That being said, with the return to space means a return to Shoko, who has been mercifully absent for the past few episodes for the most part. This does not bode well for me.
6.5/10.